Vikings score early to beat Mount Vernon for third

Lake Stevens advances to play Roosevelt on Saturday for spot in state tournament

EDMONDS -- Lake Stevens used an early goal to hold off a feisty Mount Vernon team to win the 4A District 1 third-place game and advance to Saturday's play-in game to the 4A state tournament.Marcus Edwards assisted Michel Zavalza in the seventh minute in the game's only strike that was on the mark. Seventy minutes later Edwards manned the back post on a corner kick during a late-game flurry and cleared a shot that curled around goalie Brennen Countryman."He cleared it three yards inside the post and that was the game winner," Vikings coach Kit Shanholtzer said of the play by his senior forwardThe final five minutes was non-stop shot after shot by the Bulldogs, but Countryman came up big every time."That's this game." Mt. Vernon coach Tony Dabbs said. "You can get tons of opportunities, but until you get that one in the back of the net the goal seems really small."Lake Stevens plays Roosevelt from the Kingco league Saturday 2 p.m. at Seattle's Memorial Stadium in a winner-to-state-loser-out contest. It will be the Vikings fourth game in seven days. They were 3-0 against the Bulldogs, winning by a combined score of 4-1.This season was a positive return to 4A competition and Wesco for the Bulldogs after a six-year stint in the Northwest Conference."We knew what we were getting into," Dabbs said. "The competition is stiff every single game. You have to play your best every single game to get results."I like the competition. I think it's good for us as we go forward"At Edmonds StadiumGoals--Michel Zavalza (L). Assists--Marcus Edwards (L). Goalkeepers--Mt. Vernon: Adriano Terenzi. Lake Stevens: Brennen Countryman. Records--Mt. Vernon (7-9-2 overall), Lake Stevens (13-4-2).

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